Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing a counterpart to the cycle to work scheme for self-employed people.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Cycle to Work scheme is a benefit-in-kind provided by employers to their employees. A benefit-in-kind is a form of non-cash remuneration provided by employers to their employees. Income tax and National Insurance contribution relief is provided on the scheme to both employers and their employees via salary sacrifice arrangements. As a result, the scheme is not open to the self-employed, who are not eligible for salary sacrifice.
The government considers all tax changes in the round at fiscal events. The government stands by the commitment made not to increase tax on working people, including income tax, national insurance and VAT
The government is not going to speculate on tax changes ahead of the Budget on 30th October.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent progress has been made on establishing the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
In August, we laid regulations that give the Infected Blood Compensation Authority the powers necessary to pay compensation through the core route to the infected, both living and deceased. On 17 October, the Infected Blood Compensation Authority began to reach out to the first claimants under these Regulations and the Government expects the Authority to begin making payments by the end of the year. On 24 October, the Government opened the process under which estates can apply for interim compensation payments of £100,000 for deaths not yet recognised. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the Government is aiming for the second set of Regulations to be in place by 31 March 2025. This will support our aim of payments to people who are affected to begin in 2025.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what diplomatic steps his Department is taking to secure an (a) ambitious and (b) legally binding target to cut plastic production at the UN Global Plastics Treaty.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As a member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution and a signatory to the Bridge to Busan Declaration, the UK is pushing for an ambitious treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastics, including reducing production and consumption of primary plastic polymers to sustainable levels. The UK has played an active role in negotiations including at high-level Ministerial consultations on this matter during the UN General Assembly in New York.